My father passed away in December of 2011 at age 92 and my mother passed away in June of 2015 at age 97 -- young at heart, too ornery to die. Originally from Stevens Point, Wisconsin, we moved to Kansas City when I was in 4th grade and moved to Minneapolis after I finished 5th grade. When my father retired sometime in the 1980s, my parents moved to Cherokee Village, Arkansas, where they enjoyed their golden years...

The search for the ideal place to live has been a big part of my life. I prefer a quiet rural area far from neighbors with a hilly terrain, affordable housing, moderate weather and earthy women. I've lived in scores of places in 12 states now and have yet to find heaven on earth, but I keep getting closer...

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese Navy perpetrated a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, compelling the USA to enter into the horrific global conflict called World War II. Many Hollywood movie stars were involved in military action during WWII...

Marion Robert Morrison was born in Winterset, Iowa, on May 16, 1907. At age four, his family moved to Los Angeles. He was a gifted athlete who lost his football scholarship at USC due to a body surfing accident. Soon, he found work in small bit parts at local film studios, where he eventually changed his name to John Wayne...

In 1964, during the height of the Cold War between the USA and Russia, Stanley Kubrick produced, co-wrote and directed the film classic, DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. In the opening scenes, General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) was concerned about an epiphany he had experienced during a sexual encounter regarding protecting his "purity of essence" and thereby became a bit paranoid about the fluoridation of drinking water...

In 1980, when I was married and living in Los Angeles, my wife and I took a trip to Club Med in Playa Blanca, Mexico. We boarded a 707 passenger jet, chartered by a travel agency, on a Friday night bound for Manzanillo. To my surprise, the plane landed in La Paz on the Baja Peninsula where each passenger was given a card by the stewardess and told to fill it out. ...

Every state in America has a state motto. They tend to be inspirational catchwords, brief yet powerful, no doubt meant to inspire the populace to greatness. The mottos are heavy on truth, justice and the American way – much like Superman without the blue tights, red cape and the need to masquerade as a mild-mannered reporter...

QUESTION: What do the following three lists have in common? LIST #1 – England, Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Jerusalem, Damascus, London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, Dallas, Houston, Hollywood, Delaware, Kentucky, Kansas, Washington, Northern Ohio...

February 14 is Valentine's Day. According to legend, Valentine was a Roman priest during the third century. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he decreed that young men were forbidden to get married. However, Valentine defied the ruling and continued to perform marriages of young couples in secret...

A synchronicity is a meaningful coincidence of events that are not connected, often involving a metaphysical overtone. It's a psychically conditioned relativity of time and space. An Internet website recently had an interesting list of amazing coincidences. However, they seem more like synchronicities to me -- like a shot of destiny to wake up the soul...

When I was about five years old, I was excited to learn that Santa Claus was going to appear at my house early on Christmas Eve to personally hand Christmas gifts to my little brother and me. My parents explained that Santa was doing this as a special treat for us since we didn't have a chimney...

The winter solstice is upon us. Time to be with friends and family, to eat, drink and be merry, to give thanks for another joyous year on Planet Earth, and to watch a lot of football...

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Over the years, I've researched the JFK assassination and have formulated my own conspiracy theory about this nefarious tragedy, far beyond a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald, based upon a bizarre sequence of collateral events...

On Sunday, November 5, Daylight Savings Time officially ends for the year 2017, whereby we must change all of our clocks to remain is sync with our surrounding world. Time is a great invention -- it keeps everything from happening all at once...

Li Ching-Yuen was born in China in 1677 and died in 1933. His life is the most thoroughly documented case of extreme longevity, spanning 256 years. Imperial Chinese government records from 1827 report that Li Ching-Yuen was congratulated on his 150th birthday and documents from 1877 report that he was congratulated on his 200th birthday...

There is magic on Planet Earth -- it's called water. Water is a basic component of all living things on the planet. Two-thirds of the surface of earth is covered by water and the human body is made up of over 70 percent water. It's the essence of our being...

This year, 2017, is the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. In January of 1967, a "Be-In" took place in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. "If you're going to San Francisco,... be sure to wear some flowers in your hair... If you're going to San Francisco,.....

I was once in the Eye of a Hurricane -- much excitement. By the spring of 1964, I had spent two years at the University of Minnesota, majoring in mathematics, vacillating between becoming an architect or a mining engineer, trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life...

New Madrid, Mo., is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, about a hundred miles upstream from Memphis, across the river from the Kentucky and Tennessee state lines, just above the Missouri boot heel. The population in 2010 was approximately 3,200...

Bob Brewer was born and raised in western Arkansas. As a youngster, his great-uncle introduced him to a mystery that included wilderness paths, hidden symbols, carvings on trees and rocks, and the topography of certain areas. The old man was the keeper of some sort of secret knowledge that he kept to himself...